Prison Service preparing release of Palestinian prisoners

Aharonovich holds planning session with senior officials; 450 Palestinians, Israeli Arabs to be released in first stage of Schalit deal.

The Prison Service Wednesday morning began preparing for the release of security prisoners as part of aprisoner exchange dealfor kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit that will see 1,027 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons.

Public SecurityYitzhak Aharonovich met with police Insp.-Gen. Yochanan Danino and senior officials from Israel Prisons Service (IPS) Wednesday morning in orderto updatethem on the prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

Instructions were given to the IPS on preparations for carrying out the deal.
"You must prepare for a range of scenarios in the prisons and outside of them," Aharonovich told the IPS during the meeting.

Among the preparations being made were plans for dealing with possible unrest among security prisoners who discover that they are not on the list of prisoners to be released.

A total of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners will be released in the deal, in two stages. In the first stage, 450 prisoners will be released, 280 of whom are serving life sentences.

Of those, Israel agreed to release 96 prisoners to theWest Bankand 14 to east Jerusalem. Another 203 from theWest Bankwill be deported to Gaza and 40 will be sent abroad. Further, 131 prisoners from Gaza will be released back to Gaza.

Of the 110 prisoners being released to theWest Bankand east Jerusalem, half will have limited freedom of movement. Some will not be able totravel abroad, or leave their home cities. Only 55 of those 110 prisoners are Hamas operatives.

Six Israeli Arabs will be released to their homes and 27 female prisoners will be released as a part of the deal.

Schalit will then be sent to Israel, and another 550 prisoners – including women and minors – will be released.

Jailed terrorists Marwan Barghouti, Abdullah Barghouti, Ibrahim Hamed and Ahmed Sa'adat will not be released as part of the deal.

A full list of the prisoners set to be released in the deal will be released to the public 48 hours before the exchange takes place.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen said that in the first phase of the swap, Israel will release 450 prisoners. Two months later,Israel will choose an additional 577 prisoners it wants to release.

All Palestinian female prisoners held in Israeli prisons are included in the list of 450 including Amina Mona, a young woman who lured a lovestruck Israeli teenage boy by the name of Ophir Rahum to a Palestinian city over the Internet, only to have him killed by waiting terrorists.

Israel will release 110 prisoners to the West Bank (14 to east Jerusalem) while 131 will return to their homes in the Gaza Strip.

Of the 450 prisoners to be released in the first phase, 280 are serving at least one life sentence.

However, Israel scored a major victory as nearly all top Palestinian terroristswill not be freedin the exchange, including:

·Marwan Barghouti who was sentenced to five life sentences for his role in the murders of Israelis during the al-Aksa intifada

·Abdullah Barghouti who is serving out 67 consecutive life terms for building the bombs that murdered 66 people

·Ahmed Saadat who headed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and was responsible for the assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi

·Hassan Salama, a Hamas leader who was convicted of murdering 67 Israeli citizens

·Abbas a-Sayed, mastermind of the Park Hotel suicide bombing in which 30 Israelis were killed on the eve of Passover 2002

·Ibrahim Hamed, who was found guilty of involvement in terrorist attacks that led to the death of 82 Israelis

"450 is a large number but 300 are leaving the area to Gaza or overseas," Cohen said.

Israel has been releasing a few hundred prisoners a month for years now, so waiting a couple of months and then releasing 577 of Israel's choosing is not too bad.

And the fact that the top terrorists are not being released is very good news.

Ma'anquotes other Israeli sources as saying that of the initial set of prisoners, 23 are from Fatah, 6 from the DFLP, 6 from the PFLP, and all the rest from Hamas.